Head Kicks and Heads of State

Ted Glomski
Nov 4 · 4 min read
Kevin Lee (right) delivers a knockout head kick to Gregor Gillespie at UFC 244. Photo courtesy CBS Sports.

The opening fight of the pay-per-view card at UFC 244 was Gregor Gillespie versus Kevin Lee. The two fighters came into Madison Square Garden with two very different trajectories: Gregor “The Gift” Gillespie a 13–0 undefeated rising star, rising through one of the toughest divisions in MMA with dominant grappling and a well-balanced fight game. Kevin Lee was 1–3 from his last four fights, and even on that win Lee was unable to make weight. His attempt at a higher weight class ended disastrously and he just switched training gyms. A loss might mean a release from the UFC. Lee was being thrown into the ring as a statement win for Gillespie, portending a climb into title contention in the lightweight division.

A vicious head kick in the first round flipped the script instantly.

By itself this is a compelling story — Lee, who everyone counted out, now had a highlight-reel knockout and showed a huge improvement after his move to TriStar Gym. Who is he going to fight next? Will he be able to make lightning strike twice?

However, Lee became a big story for his reaction after his win:

A screenshot after the knockout of Kevin Lee’s Instagram (@ motownphenom) with the text, “BERNIE SANDERS YOU BASTARDS”

This screenshot made its rounds on lefty “Rose Twitter”, since Donald Trump was at the fight. I watched the fight live, but didn’t follow Lee on Instagram so I didn’t see the reaction until two days after the fight.

My first instinct was to get in the comments and correct folks. This wasn’t the fight that Trump attended; it was one fight on the twelve fight card. Is Gillespie a Trump supporter? I mean he’s definitely coded himself as a “country boy” so I wouldn’t be surprised but from a cursory look at his social media he doesn’t tout himself as a vocal MAGA guy (unlike, say, Colby Covington, a rising UFC welterweight who regularly makes appearances wearing the trademark red hat). Since lots of people were talking about it, and I had previously made a primer for MMA/UFC for the neophyte, I might as well chime in.

The fight occurred shortly after Donald Trump entered the Madison Square Garden arena to a cacophony of boos, which Trump denied (of course). Best way to answer that is by pointing to his starkest opposite, the democratic socialist Sanders who seeks to end the undue influence that billionaires have on our economy and political system. My sense is Lee probably supports Sanders but just made the comment to get under Dana White’s skin and put a little bow on his stellar knockout.

Dana White, the president of UFC, is a big fan of Trump’s. Soon after the UFC began there were lean years where politicians tried to ban mixed martial arts nationwide, and the UFC only survived by the good graces of billionaires like Trump:

I would never say anything negative about Donald Trump because he was there when other people weren’t.

Of course the ties don’t stop and start from the years of loyalty: when other major sports leagues give about half of their revenues to the athletes, UFC gives less than thirty three percent. White (and prior UFC owners the Fertittas) have a history of union busting (detailed in my prior article). Many fighters don’t make enough through UFC fights and as such seek out sponsorship deals, but UFC signed a deal with Reebok which ended up taking away fighters’ ability to negotiate for ad space on their fight clothes.

UFC Interim Welterweight Champion Colby Covington at a UFC event. Image courtesy SI.

Many other UFC personalities dabble in reactionary politics, like the aforementioned Colby Covington and the Gracie family who has ties to the Bolsonaro regime in Brazil. UFC color commentator Joe Rogan has the #1 English language podcast and has hosted Milo Yiannopoulos and Dan Crenshaw, but has also hosted Bernie Sanders and Edward Snowden.

So, then, is Kevin Lee a sole voice of progressive principle in the middle of a reactionary warzone? Probably not. Ronda Rousey, former women’s champion, came out for Bernie Sanders in 2015, but since then she’s left the UFC and had a brief stint in World Wrestling Entertainment (which is owned by Vince McMahon, whose wife is in the Trump administration). Other fighters have responded positively to the post (including welterweight champ Kamaru Usman, who is fighting Colby Covington next month), but mostly in wishing Kevin Lee well (not to #feelthebern). To be honest, not very many fighters are all that political.

To succeed in the UFC, you need to do three things: You need to win, you need to win in a flashy manner (believe it or not, fights can be boring), and you need to be stir some controversy. With his win and his post, Kevin did all three. Will Kevin Lee’s antics start a trend of more political commentary from fighters? If it’s gonna bring the eyeballs, I wouldn’t doubt it.

Should fighters support Bernie Sanders? I’ll leave that to other magazines to make the argument. (The answer is yes, as Medicare for All would leave fighters not tied to UFC’s healthcare and the labor protections could give fighters the rights they need to organize.)

Ted Glomski

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Sometimes I think of things that can’t be put into brief social media posts. I plan on putting them here.

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